Quote:
Originally Posted by janicew
Working in technology, I encounter a lot of people who want to try an iPad, Android tablet, e-reader, whatever. The biggest thing I tell each and every one of them is that if you aren't willing to spend a bit of time either on your own or with someone to work with the device and discover how it works best for you, then you won't use it effectively (or at all) and don't bother buying it. It takes time to learn something new - tech or otherwise. You could give me a crochet kit for Christmas and it'd go unused because I don't want to spend the time to learn. Same principle. I don't know why people understand they have to practice a non-tech skill to learn something new, but expect tech just to be magical and require no learning on their part.
If people got these things as gifts and the person had no interest, they aren't going to spend the time to get themselves up and running.
I bought my mom a Kindle4NT for Christmas even though she hadn't specifically asked. She had shown some interest in my Kindle, and I knew that I could help her get books loaded and learn how to find books she likes fairly easily. Why? Because she's comfortable with the computer, (pretty good for a 65 year old actually), and she is willing to spend time to learn. I knew that she'd enjoy the portability of the device for reading anywhere, and as she ages and needs larger print, the Kindle can accommodate. If she gets used to it now, she'll read on it when she needs large print later. (At least that's my thinking and she agrees.) So far she loves it.
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I also work in IT, though not on the hardware end of things. I am my family's and a number of my friend's technical trouble shooter and help desk, which can be really annoying at times. My mother-in-law got a kindle touch a little before Christmas and I probably spent 2 hours with her walking her through things like loaning an ebook from our state library system (in advance of getting one and later after she did get one), how you return a book early, how to buy and load one up, a few of the functions on the kindle touch, etc.
She falls in to the middle ground. I, my father, brother-in-law and my father-in-law are the "we will teach ourselves and we want to learn type, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are the "show us how to do it" and my wife and mother are "if it ain't super intuitive, someone else do it for me, don't bother with an explination of how to do it unless I have to do it 5 times a day on my own".